FRED'S HEAD, FROM APH

Chronicle Books has published "Seeing Beyond Sight," a book by visual artist and social entrepreneur Tony Deifell, which features photographs taken by blind and visually impaired teenagers. A rare book of visual art, "Seeing Beyond Sight" provides inspiration, not only to the visually impaired community, but also to anyone who has ever considered what it means to see and perceive the world. For order information, call 800-722-6657, or click this link to visit http://www.chroniclebooks.com.

No, I didn't say Knight Rider, I said Night Reader. You guys are so 80s. Anyway, this device was designed for those who can't sleep without doing a bit of reading. The Night Reader Book Cover allows one to continue reading without bothering anyone after the lights go out. How cool would this be for those who have low vision? How many times have you needed a little extra light in the library or classroom?Just slip this attractive book cover onto your favorite novel, pull up the periscoping light, and you will have the luxury of having your own personal lamp to read by. The Night Reader's white light is restful on the eyes and its adjustable neck and pivoting head allows you to shift the light anywhere you need it. The Book cover light contains energy-efficient LEDs that last an incredible 100,000 hours, never needing replacement!

Click this link to purchase the Night Reader.

Independent Visually Impaired Enterprisers - (IVIE) is an affiliate organization of the American Council of the Blind, (ACB). Their members include a wide range of blind and visually impaired business owners and entrepreneurs. IVIE is a rich source of information on business ideas, strategies, assistive technology and networking. Have you ever considered starting your own small business? Perhaps, IVIE members can help. For any questions, or more information about IVIE, please click this link to contact Ardis Bazyn at abazyn@bazyncommunications.com.

Article Source: http://www.tabinc.org/blog/archives/2007/04/independent_vis.html

We hear a lot about the retina, but what is it? I found the following explanation on The Foundation for Retinal Research website and wanted to share it with you. The retina, as the brain, is part of the Central Nervous System. It is a thin, transparent tissue that is attached inside the back part of the eye. Its main function is to capture light images, begin their processing and pass them down the optic nerve to the brain. Structurally, the retina is stratified, i.e., most cells are in distinct bands or layers. In fact, one can think of the retina as a layer cake. The following is a short description of the important cell types of the retina.

Photoreceptor CellsThe most important cell is the photoreceptor neuron. Its main function is to capture the light energy in a visual image and convert it to an electrical response. This is done is a specialized part of the photoreceptor cells called the outer segment. Visual proteins are concentrated in the outer segment. These are the protein…

Message: HI Fred! I am new to this---trying to find information about a condition called "Lemurs" not sure I am even spelling it right, but that's what it sounds like. It's apparently a genetic condition, passed through the mother, only to male children, that causes significant vision impairment, the onset of which usually occurs around age 20-30. Know where I can get more info? Thanks so much. location: North Carolina Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) is a rare, hereditary disorder that leads to retinal dysfunction and visual impairment at an early age, often from birth. Of all the retinal degenerations, LCA has the earliest age of onset and can be the most severe. LCA bears the name of Dr. Theodore Leber who first described the condition. The term amaurosis refers to any condition of blindness or marked loss of vision, especially loss of vision in which there is little or no change in the appearance of the eye itself. LCA is sometimes confused with an…

The Foundation for Retinal Research is committed to finding treatments and cures for Retinal Degenerative Diseases and supporting the lives of affected families. The Foundation for Retinal Research (FRR) was founded in 1998 at a time when very little was known or published about Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). Families affected by Leber's Congenital Amaurosis had a difficult time acquiring information and making connections to help them understand the eye disorder. The Foundation has bridged the gap between families and research. Their website offers people the most current medical and research information available, connects them to other families and provides links to services related to the field of blindness. For more information, contact:

Foundation for Retinal Research
1985 Dale Avenue
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone: 847-432-5101
Fax: 847-432-0545
Email: info@tfrr.org
http://www.tfrr.org

Menus That Talk is a portable, compact device, approximately the size of a DVD case, that speaks to restaurant guests, describing selected food items from the hand-held unit's illuminated buttons. A lighted array of buttons displays major menu categories like DRINKS, APPETIZERS and SEAFOOD. Guests simply press a button corresponding to a category and hear brief descriptions of cuisine, wine suggestions, sides and prices. At the touch of a button, Menus That Talk describes what's for dinner. No habla ingles? No problem: Just press the language button for Spanish or another language. No more squinting in dim light or turning page after page of complex printed menus. No more awkward conferences with busy waiters. Ready to order? A Service button pages your waiter. For the visually disabled, the buttons are also imprinted in Braille. Guests who can't see the button names and don't use Braille can browse the menu simply by tapping buttons to hear categories. Another tap …

When a cook is blind or partially sighted, safety and organization become crucial issues. Accurate cooking demands full use of all remaining senses. For this reason, the lack of complete concentration during meal preparation can result in over-or under-cooking food, burning yourself, or creating messy accidents to be cleaned up later. Tips: When handling hot baking ware, use oven mitts long enough to cover your hands and lower arms completely. Use an audible timer and be sure you have set it correctly. Organize your ingredients, and develop a labeling system so containers that feel alike will not confuse you.

If you have any residual vision, use a magnifier to read food labels, even if you are positive as to what is in your hand. Before serving a meal, double check to be sure all stove controls are in the off position.

While burner covers are very attractive, they are not heat resistant; so if you have them, remove them from the stove before turning on a burner or oven.

This abstract …

If you are sending an email with an attachment, add the attachment first, compose the message, then add email addresses to the send line. Now there's no chance you'll have to send the ever-popular "whoops, forgot to attach the file" follow-up message. It's a good practice to always put the email addresses of the recipients in last, to ensure that a runaway enter key press or mouse click won't fire off the message before its complete.

I received this great tip from a visually impaired mother of four. Amid the confused haze of sleep deprivation that comes with the care of an infant, a breastfeeding mother may forget which side she used last. If faced with this problem, simply place a hair band or bracelet around the wrist.

In more than one instance, I've been in need of a decent file restore utility, you know, for those times when you like to use the shift key with the delete because you just know you'll never need that file again? Recuva (pronounced Recover, according to their website, is "a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!" Even if you think you'll never need it, go ahead and download it and put it away somewhere. I guarantee a time will come when you'll be glad you did.

Click this link to visit http://www.recuva.com and download Recuva.